Those who don’t learn from their failures and mistakes are doomed to repeat them. Making the same mistakes not only highly inefficient, but costly in terms of time, opportunities and losses involved. Failure is actually one of the most important sources for personal growth. It has more to teach you than success. In fact failure is a golden opportunity for you to attain success if you learn from it. Read on to find out how.

Look for the Causes of Failure

Learning from failure starts with knowing the cause of it. You must identify all the main causes before you can correct them. Only by doing so can you avoid making the same mistakes and turn your failure into a success. In the process you will need to find the answers to the following questions. Why did you fail? Who was involved? What were the factors that caused your failure? Where did things go wrong? Were your expectations realistic?

Look for the Positive Side of Failure

A failure has positive aspects hidden within if you look for it. Firstly, it alerts you to your mistakes. If you do not correct these mistakes quickly, a greater disaster may happen to you. Secondly, there might be some areas where you achieved success. Knowing which part of the process you got right allows you to focus on your mistakes. Thirdly, there might be unexpected opportunities hidden in failure. It might be unrelated to your original aims or it might be a new way of doing things. The famous inventor Thomas Edison was able to give us the light bulb because of this.

Learning From Failure

After you have identified the causes of your failure, it is time to learn from and correct your mistakes. Only when you done so will you gain the wisdom needed to turn your failure into a success. It is not possible to have a fixed set of guidelines since each mistake and failure is different. But there are a few things that you should bear in mind.

Firstly, return to basics and strip away the parts that do not serve any useful purpose. Secondly, it is vital that you keep an open mind during this process. This is because you will have to depend on trial and error to correct each mistake. Lastly, do not give up trying. If one way fails, try another. In the end, experience is the best teacher in life.

Learn by Seeking Help

When it comes to failure, it is good to seek help with it. With the right advice and guidance, you could learn a lot more from your failure than you would have on your own. You could seek help from your family and your close friends. But whoever it is, this person should have successfully managed their own failures.

Taking Action

The last part of the learning process is to take action. All the knowledge in the world will not produce any results until you apply it. Although learning from failure may seem awkward at first, with practice the steps above will become natural to you. By taking care to correct your mistakes and to persist, you will turn your failures into successes.